Under the Veil of Night

Ivan was practically on the edge when he heard what Laura said. The name 'Laura Nali' was not a stranger for him because he had heard this name for a long time. However, he never had the chance to meet with the girl because she always stayed low.

Even when he wanted to, she would give the excuse that she was busy. His futile attempt made him think that she was unreachable.

How come this woman becomes his cousin's girlfriend? He couldn't accept this. This way, even if Jason didn't become Wells Family Head, he had more than enough resources to build more companies. The Nali Family has been growing closer to the Wells Family, which made them one of the strongest rivals of Wells Family.

What if the elders preferred to have him as the successor instead, so they could gain more companies? NO! He could not let this happen.

"Don't lie! How come you're his girlfriend?"

Jason arched his eyebrows. "My dear cousin, don't blame it on my girlfriend for your poor luck in finding a partner."

That was truly a large blow straight to his heart. Ivan glared at Jason deeply. If only looks can kill, Jason would have been dead a few times with the way Ivan glared at the other party.

"I'm sure that private matter is not something that you need to pry on," Laura smiled sweetly. "Haven't your family taught you that, Young Master Ivan?"

Although the tone that Laura used was extremely pleasant to the ear, the content was nothing but piercing deeper wounds to Ivan's heart. He wanted to refute Laura, but the elder had pulled him back.

Right now, they were in front of the reporters. There was no need for Ivan to embarrass himself further by giving in to the taunt these two gave him. Despite being unwilling, Ivan had no choice but to back down.

'Smart boy,' Jason thought to himself. "Let's get inside. I'll answer your question if we have the time."

Jason took Laura's hand into his. Seeing their action, the reporters crazily tried to capture their picture. Every single angle possible of these two holding hands were taken by them. Even some frantic reporters went to the degree of climbing the trees just to get a better angle for the pic.

This is a new sensation. The most well-known young master in this city is getting a girlfriend! Not to mention, his girlfriend is the recently famous and talented family head.

This is truly a scoop.

Slowly, Jason walked into the mansion with Laura holding his hand.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly. He didn't want Laura to feel suffocated because of his matter.

Laura nodded her head. "Don't worry, I'm fine."

"That's good."

Behind them, Ivan was staring at the door as if he wanted to bore a hole into them. He felt immense anger at the thought that Jason would be able to get everything that he wanted because of a woman.

"Young Master, let's get in."

"Yeah," Ivan's eyes narrowed. Even if Jason could get Laura, it didn't mean the elders' opinion would lean to Laura. He would make sure about that.

In the hall, the elders' gaze was directed towards Laura. She was dressing properly, like how an elegant woman should dress. Although she was beautiful, her beauty was shown in a rather mild manner, not allowing them to see through her.

Wells Family Head spoke up first.

 "Jason, you should explain yourself."

"Yes, Father," Jason replied somberly. "For the past few days, I've contacting Laura to talk about the matter of her attack after she rejects the notion of collaboration. From what I heard, they didn't plan on letting her go at all because there are a lot of attacks directed to the Nali Family for the past few weeks.

However, the government didn't place serious importance in eliminating Nali Family Head because she's staying low. They're just trying to cut off everyone who tries to oppose them because they want to be the sole one in power in this city."

Laura stayed silent. In truth, they didn't even talk about that matter at all. What they were doing was only him helping her out with her paper per usual and him teasing her all day. However, there was no way she could tell that to the elders. There was no need for them to know their relationship has been going for a long time.

Behind him, Ivan frowned. "Won't that mean that the government is much more powerful than us, so we shouldn't go against them?"

"It's the opposite, my dear cousin," Jason chuckled, yet his laugh was filled with coldness. "Do you truly want to see the government as the sole power in this city without anyone able to question their action? The number of innocent people who died in their hands amounted to thousands."

"How do you know so much?" Ivan asked cautiously.

Jason spread his hand. "It's easy, isn't it? You only have to look at the list of missing people for the past few years. Even though not all of them are because of the government, most of them are students from Lima School, which I believe belongs to the government."

Ivan's face changed greatly when Jason mentioned that school. Among those who were here, there was not a single one of them who didn't know what had happened in that school. However, they didn't have the power to go against the government and stopped the inhuman act. All they could do so far was turning blind eyes to them.

"Do you have any solution to go against the government, Jason?" Wells Family Head interrupted. This was the most important point of their entire argument.

Jason nodded his head. He put down the map on his hand to the table. "This is all the photocopy of the shares for more than 30% large companies in this city. All of them are under my name. And I'm mostly the largest shareholders in the companies, so it can be said that I'm the leader and owner."

When the elders heard that, they were stunned speechless. So far, the Wells Family held around 40% of all large companies in this city while Nali Family held around 20%. If Jason has 30% ownerships of companies, it was practically telling them that the economics section of the city was nearly completely in their hands. The rest of the companies wouldn't be able to contend against them at all.

Wells Family Head understood Jason's intention immediately. They might lose in terms of military power alone, but a city didn't only need military power. As long as they could convince the government that their existences were needed, no one would dare to touch them.

As for the bodyguards, there were plenty of them gathered in the Wells Family.

"That's impossible!" Ivan blurted out. He had been paying attention to the movement of Jason Wells all these years. One of the most important things he did was making sure that Jason couldn't build any other companies aside from those belonged to Wells Family. This was to ensure that this young man didn't step ahead from him.

How come he manages to obtain shares of 30% large companies just like that?

Jason shook his head lightly. This was the backup plan that he had prepared with Kanae. Using his secret stash of money, he bought a large amount of company and registered them under Kanae's name. The CEO was also a fake one that he paid to act as the owner. All along, Kanae was the one handling the matter of the companies, while he helped from the shadow.

Only when it was required that she would put his name as the co-owner, meaning the company belonged to the two of them. This way, he would gain the right to control them too.

Of course, this was only for a part of them. There were not enough funds to buy every single company in this city. And unless he was crazy, he would never do that because they dabbled in numerous matters. For most of them, he only became one of their biggest shareholders and could influence some of their decision making.

But he would not reveal this to his cousin.

"There are things that you don't know, my dear cousin," Jason smiled. "You have lost."

"No! That's…" Ivan gazed at the paper with disbelief. "How did you do that?"

"You don't have to know," Jason replied firmly.

"I…"

"Ivan, you should cool your head," Wells Family Head interrupted. "And Jason, we need to talk privately."

"Yes, Father."

Ivan glared at Jason and the other elders. Seeing how those who supported him had lowered their head, he knew that he had lost this time. But this was not over yet.

"I'll be back, Jason."

Jason smiled. "I'll be waiting for you."

Ivan turned around towards the door with a dark expression.. The Wells Family Head hadn't given out his verdict, so there was still time for him. He would surely take the position for himself!